From the Ashes
by tararaegrey
Summary: DH compliant, excluding epilogue. One year after the war, Draco is being held in Azkaban in regards to Dumbledore's death. Meanwhile, other murderers roam free. Can Draco overcome his dark past, or will tragedy and a certain Mark drag him back into the depths? Reviews encouraged and appreciated! More chapters to come!


"Would you have killed him? Dumbledore, I mean." Harry Potter watched Draco Malfoy's face careful, for any signs of deception, or anxiety, or…. anything. Nearly three hours of interviewing the boy—no, _man, _he corrected, for they were all men now—had yet to so much as raise an eyebrow. His face remained stoic as ever. "It didn't seem like you were going to. I saw… or at least, I think I saw…. I think I saw you lower your wand. Before the Carrows and Greyback arrived on the tower."

Malfoy blinked. "At last. We have come to the point."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, thanks to the Mark on my left arm, I am branded dark. Evil. A leper in this newfound society which has no sympathy for those once in collaboration with the Dark Lord. And you have come to get some kind of…. evidence, shall we say… to use against me to keep me in this godforsaken cell, without the trial I have been so _patiently_ awaiting." He blinked again, his face still empty of emotion, despite his words.

Harry clasped his hands on the table before him, and took a deep breath. "Weren't you listening? _I don't think you would have killed him._ As for that trial… it is already underway." For the first time, he saw something spark in Malfoy's cold grey eyes. "And I am, in fact, collecting evidence... evidence that I can use to have you fully released, as soon as possible. My testimony ought to be enough, really… but Albus Dumbledore's death remains a matter of contention and the wizarding community is calling for someone to rot in Azkaban for it."

The spark burned brighter. "And I am an easy someone to pin that on." There was a long silence in which Harry picked at a thread on his robes. "Has anyone been arrested in….. in the murder of…." His voice trailed away.

"Your parents?"

Silence.

"Draco, I—"

"Don't you 'Draco' me." Malfoy's voice was quiet, but finally, _finally, _Harry could hear real emotion in it. He looked up and, sure enough, Malfoy's face was lined with fury… and a deep sadness Harry himself knew only too well. "It's a simple question. _Has anyone been arrested for their deaths yet?_"

"No."

Draco lifted a hand to cover his eyes. "How can you justify… keeping me here… wasting your time interrogating me… when murderers are loose? How can you question me on what I could have done, maybe _should have_ done, when someone who _actually_ murdered _my parents_ runs around free in the world?" He stood suddenly, knocking back his chair. The guard outside the cell moved to open the door, but Harry raised a hand against it.

"Are you saying you wish you had killed Dumbledore?"

Malfoy ran a hand through his now shoulder-length long silvery blonde hair, roughly, as he started pacing the tiny cell. "I'm saying…. Maybe if I had killed him, they wouldn't be dead. I probably would be. You certainly would be." He laughed dryly. Four steps forward, four steps back. "But at least then they wouldn't be dead and I wouldn't be standing here wondering if I could have saved them." He leaned against the cell wall.

Harry didn't speak. He knew this guilt well. Well enough to know that nothing he said now could ease Malfoy's suffering. Not for a minute.

"They helped you, Potter. They both did. _I _did. So you… you owe me. If there is indeed a trial…. You owe it to me to get me out of here, so that _I, _at least, their son… so that I can find them justice."

Harry leaned his head back, cracked his neck. "Don't you think that every day, every single bloody day, I don't think about all the people who risked their lives, for _me? _ There are more than you even realize, people you wouldn't think mattered even if you knew who they were, who died so that I could kill Voldemort. So don't you dare accuse me of not taking their deaths seriously. I do. And I have spent every extra minute I have had going over and over their case, and I will continue to do so, until I have put someone into this prison to pay for what they did to Lucius and Narcissa. But until then… _let me help you._ Because I swear, that is all I have been trying to do."

Draco stared at him, long and hard, until his gaze seemed to go right through Harry like a chill.

"I don't know." He said at last.

"You don't know if you'll let me help you? Fat lot of good that is." Harry stood abruptly, and strode around the table, past Draco, who was still leaning against the wall. "If you decide, let me know."

"No! I mean… I don't know if I would have done it." Harry paused, his wand opining at the door. "I don't know if I would have killed Dumbledore. I didn't want to. I never really _wanted_ to, especially after he… Voldemort…_" _he gulped, "started threatening me. Us. And when Dumbledore offered to hide my mother and me…. I wanted that so badly, that for a moment I let myself believe that it could, would, happen." He walked back to his chair and thunked down into it heavily. "I… I don't think I could have."

There was another long silence. Harry searched for the proper words to fill the air, but nothing came to him.

And then Malfoy spoke again, even quieter. Harry had to strain to hear the small, defeated voice. "I don't think I could have. But I still think…. Maybe…. I should have."

"_Wingardium leviosa." _The heavy iron cell door opened, and he Harry left.


End file.
